


Life After Alfred

by GothamRogue81



Series: Scenes from Gotham City [8]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Batfamily Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-15
Updated: 2016-04-15
Packaged: 2018-06-02 09:53:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6561712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GothamRogue81/pseuds/GothamRogue81
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Batfamily starts on the path to life after Alfred</p>
            </blockquote>





	Life After Alfred

**Author's Note:**

> Been awhile and I apologize for anyone that was looking forward to more from me. This is a short one, but hopefully it will lead me into more.

Wayne Manor had been sullen. In the months that had passed since Alfred’s death, Bruce had become distant and the kids had all kept themselves busy and distracted in different ways. The loss of their ‘grandfather’ had taken its toll on them and the grieving was continuing for much longer than Alfred would have wanted.

Barbara Gordon sat at the command center of the Clocktower keeping tabs on the boys, as if they were the Gotham Rouges she should be investigating. “What are doing Barbara?” a voice called from behind, startling her.

She spun around to see Dick standing there. She hadn’t seen him in over two weeks and he had grown a short black beard. The circles under his eyes were dark from his lack of sleep. She touched his hand. “You should see for yourself,” she said.

He looked at the monitors. One display was a surveillance video from Gotham Academy. On the screen, Damian was pummeling several boys in a school hallway and being dragged away by administrators as other staff and children rushed to the sides of the beaten and broken students that had just suffered Dick’s little brother’s wrath.

On another screen, police chased a stolen motorcycle around the Diamond District. The rider weaved in and out between cars, taking sharp turns. Barbara clicked, and zoomed the camera in on the rider and looked up at Dick. He recognized the thief as Jason. 

“Look at you! Your brothers are falling apart. Jason is acting out; Damian’s fighting with anyone who looks at him wrong and Tim and Stephanie have been arguing. Cassandra is the only one out there still doing her job! I understand losing Alfred was hard on all of you. Of US! But this city needs you and Alfred would not be happy at all about you all moping about.”

He nodded silently. “You’re right,” he said softly. “You’re always right.”

She pressed a button and a bookcase opened up, revealing the encased Nightwing uniform. “Suit up and let’s get this family back on track,” she said.

 

At the Gotham Docks, Jason Todd had rode the stolen motorcycle into a dead end. The police cruisers chasing him had him cornered. He laughed from behind the black ski-mask covering his face. He reached down for his grappling hook and gulped when he realized it wasn’t there. He wasn’t wearing his utility belt, or his gear. In the heat of the chase, he forgot that this had been a spur of the moment bike-jacking and he wasn’t in Red Hood mode. 

The squad cars shown their high beams and the officers stood with their guns aimed at Jason. “Don’t move! Put your hands above your head and get down on your knees!”

“That defeats the purpose of NOT moving, doesn’t it?” he yelled back.

The cars suddenly died. Their lights went out and the cops looked around flustered. From above Jason, a rope dropped from the deck of the cargo ship at the dock. Jason looked up and saw Nightwing leaning over the edge. He grabbed the rope and vanished, being pulled up.

The lights came back on and the officers rushed over to the edge of the water, thinking the theif had dove into the water. As they cussed below, Nightwing grabbed Jason’s arm and pulled him to safety. “I was handling it,” Jason said. 

“Jason,” he said. “You weren’t handling anything. None of us have been handling anything lately, and it’s time to stop,” he said.

“Oh, you playing big brother now? “ he asked, shoving past him.

Nightwing grabbed his arm and spun him around. “We’re all a mess and it has to stop. Babs was right. Alfred would be ashamed of us. He would tell us to buck up and be the soldiers we are. We have a job to do, and we’ve been ignoring it.”

“Oh I forgot how perfect you two are. You’re just itching to get back to being good guys!” He shoved him off of him. “Nothing is the same and it never will be. I’m done playing nice. It’s a cruel world and I’m sick and tired of trying to fight against the darkness of this world! The darkness that took my grandfather from me!” 

In his rage, he had begun to cry and hadn’t even realized it. Dick grabbed him and hugged him tight, despite Jason struggling. “He was my grandfather too! And I miss him just as much, I promise you,” he said. Jason finally gave in, weak and worn down.

“He trained us to be the light against that darkness, and we can’t let him down Jay. We’ve fallen and we have to get back up.”

The boys returned home to Wayne Manor and each retrieved the two remaining Robins. Tim was at the computer in the Batcave. He was researching reports on LexCorp’s dealings with a shady company in the far East. Damian was in his room, throwing knives at his closet door. He had hung up a magazine cover of Justin Bieber performing at the Knights Dome Sports Complex. The boys joined each other down in the Batcave. 

“Those uniforms mean something,” Dick pointed to their costumes. “Alfred is gone, but he has left a legacy behind. Us. We need to carry on his work. He has guided us and helped us become the heroes we are and he believed in us. We all have to stop acting out or not acting at all because we’re sad he’s gone,” he said.

“If he’s watching over us somewhere, then let’s show him how much he meant to us by acting like the men he expected us to be. Otherwise it’s all for nothing, and we do nothing to honor his memory.” Jason added.

From behind them, Batman and Black Bat stood looking on and listening in. She touched her father’s hand and he put his arm around her. She looked up at him and smiled. Gotham had its heroes back.


End file.
